Author on trial in France for contesting Rwanda genocide

A French-Cameroonian author is undergoing trial in Paris, accused of contesting the Rwanda genocide of 1994.

In his 2019 book, Charles Onana describes the suggestion that the government of Rwanda at the time orchestrated a genocide as 'a scam'.

Onana is being tried alongside his publisher.

Onana insists that his book does not deny that genocide took place or that Tutsis were targeted.

Under French law, it is an offence to deny or "minimise" the fact of any genocide that is officially recognised by France.

The case was brought before the court by the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), the Rwandan Community of France (CRF) and the Human Rights League (LDH). The complainants argue that Onana's book is revisionist, and tries to trivialize a crime against humanity.

It is not the first time Onana's work on the Rwanda genocide courts controversy.

A book he wrote in 2002 titled 'The Secrets of the Rwandan Genocide' riled Rwandan President Paul Kagame. Onana's co-author, a Rwandan national was jailed for life in Kigali over the book.

About 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed in the Rwanda genocide.